City-wide home sales inch up

New York City’s home sales market showed positive signs in the third quarter with both home prices and sales volume continuing to increase at steady pace, according to a Real Estate Board of New York report released today. As average home sales prices across the city inched up 1 percent year-over-year to $786,000, sales volume increased 6 percent year-over-year.

This upward trend is linked to increased sales in four of the five boroughs, the report said. Year-over-year, home sales in Manhattan climbed 7 percent; in Brooklyn and the Bronx, there was a 5 percent year-over-year increase. However, Staten Island had the greatest year-over-year increase in home sales with a 43 percent jump to 781 home sales in the third quarter from the 545 in the third quarter of 2011. The market in Flushing, Queens was the borough’s most active in the third quarter with 336 sales closed. Broken down, however, there were decreases. For example, there were 87 condominium sales in the third quarter — a 7 percent year-over-year decrease.

The report also attributes the improvement in the market to the Fed’s announcement of quantitative easing, aimed at keeping mortgage rates low through the purchase of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities.

There were no sales breaking the $50 million level in the third quarter. However, a total of 26 sales over $10 million were recorded. The highest was the $42 million purchase of 973 Fifth Avenue — a townhouse that was originally listed for $49 million.

As The Real Deal previously reported, numbers from leading brokerages indicated that Manhattan sales have held flat during the third quarter in the face of a fall in inventory. — Zachary Kussin